The Story Of The Children Of The Sun And The Moon

A wonderfully profound Yoruba folktale about the nature of family dynamics and the different personalities between boys and girls. I use it to talk to children about emotions and personality. The story teaches us that although are born from the same parents, we don't always turn out the same way.

Transcript

This is the story of the children of the Sun and the Moon.

Long ago,

The Sun and the Moon were married to each other.

The Sun would come about each day,

Going from east to west,

Blazing in all his glory,

Touching everything on Earth with his warmth and light and glow,

Only to be followed by the Moon,

Who would come upon the Earth with softness,

Gentleness,

And restraint.

Now,

The Sun and the Moon had many,

Many children.

The boys were just like their father,

Full of energy and rambunctious and running from one end of the Earth to the other,

While the girls were like their mother,

Reserved and quiet and waiting.

One day,

The boys who looked up to their father so much decided that they too wanted to become a son,

Just like their father.

So they all gathered together from the four corners of the Earth,

And they formed one big sun.

And when the Sun saw what they were doing,

He asked,

What are you boys doing?

And the boys,

Laughing and smiling,

Said,

We want to be like you,

Dad.

We want to go from one end of the sky to the other and touch everything and make things live.

But the Sun grew very,

Very angry at his sons,

Because the son knew that there was only room for one sun in the sky.

He told his boys to go back and to give up this idea of becoming a son.

But the boys didn't listen.

No,

No,

Dad,

We want to be just like you.

With this,

The son became very,

Very angry at his sons,

And he began to pursue them as if to kill them.

And all of the little sons dispersed from the big sun that they had created together,

And they ran in all directions as fast as they could away from their father.

And they took refuge with their grandmother,

Umoja,

The goddess of the streams and the rivers.

And when she saw what her son was doing,

She took each of the boys as they dove into the water and turned them into fish.

But the daughters of the moon never wavered.

They stayed comfortable,

Gentle,

And quietly with their mother through the whole scene.

And that is why there are stars in the sky and fish in the sea.

Reviews

Beautiful story of the sun, moon, stars, and fish🌞🌛💫🐟

Good! Wonderful story! Amazing history!💗

I’m part Yoruba, living in Scandinavia, where I’m not very connected with my roots - and unfortunately so, my roots and family from Africa. This was very healing and enjoyable. I felt connected with my roots in a whole new way, I didn’t think possible. Thank you. I’ll be listening to this often.